One of the pillars of our “Ford Leadership Forum” website is to provide the reading public with thought-provoking essays. Our goals are simple: we believe in the need for a well-educated citizenry and we believe that Americans desire a trusted place for informed commentary. Building on President Ford’s trustworthiness, fair-mindedness, civility, and careful and detailed study of political matters, we believe we can offer essays that will appeal to many Americans regardless of their party identification. Our “American Heritage” series is designed to remind Americans of their rich heritage in all its complexity, while our “Reflection Essays” refer to material other people are writing on the internet that we regard as worthy of public interest.

To this end, we are operating with the following editorial guidelines:

• All essays must be of interest to people in general, and not simply in their partisan capacities.
• Essays must avoid excessive partisanship or attacks on other parties.
• Essays must be non-ideological in nature. They may, of course, have a point of view, but that point of view has to be backed by evidence and clear argumentation.
• Essays should avoid “culture war” issues. We are more interested in what we have in common than in what separates us.
• Essays and comments must hew to rules of civility. Incivility and name-calling will not be tolerated.

We don’t expect to be perfect in our implementation of these guidelines, and so we invite correction. We seek authors who have a “point of view,” and we welcome authors who possess an alternative one. Our hope is that this website becomes the “go to” place for people who want sound analysis, lively discussion, a willingness to engage in hard conversations, and the building of mutual trust and respect across our differences.